The Sunday Times of London reported that a British intelligence report is ”severely critical” of the United States Navy in the downing of an Iranian airliner on July 3. The British report is based on radio communications monitored in the Persian Gulf.

The report says the regularly scheduled Iran Air flight left Bandar Abbas for Dubai almost on schedule. The Airliner took off only three minutes late. Moreover, the Civilian airliner was on the correct flight path. Finally, the plane was climbing when it was downed.

As John Adams once pointed out that “Facts are stubborn things.” Pentagon officials had no immediate comment.

The Sunday Times said “the intelligence report was based on conversations between the aircraft and air controllers at Bandar Abbas during the two hours preceding the downing of the Airbus.”

The report also suggested that the USS Vincennes helicopter was flying into Iranian airspace.

Statement of Marlin Fitzwater

Today, Marlin Fitzwater, the Assistant to the President for Press Relations on United States Policy has released the official statement of the President regarding the accidental attack on an Iranian jetliner over the Persian Gulf. The report states that the US will pay compensation to the families of the victims. No details were provided.

“Prompted by the humanitarian traditions of our nation, the President has decided that the United States will offer compensation on an ex gratia basis to the families of the victims who died in the Iranian airliner incident.”

The report also criticizes both Iran and Iraq for the use of chemical weapons and urges the two countries to accept a cease-fire and to work out a settlement according to the guidelines worked out in UN resolution 598.

Nidal Group Hijacks the City of Poros

Today, terrorists associated with the Abu Nidal Organization ANO, have attacked the inter-island ferry City of Poros, in Greek waters. The attack seems to have been conceived as plan B for a botched bomb attempt in Athens during which ANO bomber Samir Kadar is rumored to have die, although some believe that he is hiding. [His name will reappear in today Intelligence paragraph.]

The terrorists fired assault rifles indiscriminately and threw hand grenades into the crowd. Ten were killed, and 98 were injured.

Authorities do not know the motivation of the terrorists. They speculated that the ship was hijacked either to prevent the extradition of an ANO member, Muhammad Rashid, or in retaliation for Operation El Dorado Canyon, during which the 18 months old daughter of Gadaffi was killed.

Intelligence

On July 11th 1988, Jamilla Mograbi returns to Sweden from Cyprus. This would appear quite innocent if it were not for her background. Her two sisters were active members of the PPSF.

Dalal died in Tel Aviv when a number of Palestinians attacked and killed people on a bus and were then in turn killed by Israeli security forces. Rashidi was jailed in Britain after throwing a grenade at the Iraqi Ambassador in London.

Her three brother’s achievements are no less impressive. Mahmud, Mustafa and Mohamed Mograbi were also members of the PPSF, and so is her husband Mohamed Abu Talb. In Ashton-Ferguson book on Lockerbie, Talb appears on 82 of the 367 pages. Amazingly, that is about twice more frequently than the lone Libyan convicted of the bombing.

On July 11th 1988, Khalid Jaafar buys some flight tickets to travel from the US to the Middle East. As we shall see, the young fellow travels a lot… And he comes from quite notorious family.

Khaled Nazir jaafar

Khalid Jaafar died on Pan Am 103. He was sitting alone on the back of the half-booked plane when the bomb exploded. Khalid belongs to one of the most important drug-producing dynasties of the Bekaa valley, Lebanon. The family was already doing business with Lucky Marciano in the 20s.

After the Syrians took over Lebanon in 76, the family developed close ties with Syrian Military Intelligence, which in turn, was very close to the Syrian President. A US House report states that the family is a major actor in the smuggling of Heroin and counterfeit dollar bills. Much of his activities in the months preceding the bombing remain a mystery to this day. Yet, some of his travels can be traced with certainty and will be described in this series.

On December 5 1988, an anonymous caller warned the US embassy in Helsinki that a bomb attack on a US airliner was imminent. As we shall see, the details of the warning were astonishing. For instance, he named explicitly a Pan Am airliner coming from Frankfurt, and points the finger to Abu Nidal Organization. For now, I will just say that the caller mentioned a person by the name of Soloranta. Well, Samir Kadar just happens to have been married to a Finnish woman. Her maiden name was Soloranta.

Back to the Present

Yesterday, I reported that, on July 8 2008, a man, who says he was an officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, also claimed that he was an informant for the CIA, under the codename Wali. Reza Khalili, an alias, alleges that he provided the CIA with information linking the bombing of Pan Am 103 to Tehran. [1]

His allegations regarding the Iranian nuclear program made me a bit suspicious. Firstly, Khalili is quite wrong about the chronology of the events. Secondly the facts that he correctly describes were already known from a document which was declassified by Rafsanjani in late 2006.

I thus emailed his interview to a former US Intelligence with much experience in the Middle East. He answered to me, in no ambiguous terms, that Khalili is a fabricator.